Chronology: Date 2009-03

date	event	tags	firsts
2009 30 Mar	The first meeting of the imprisoned Yaran with their families took place and was in person. It is customary in Iran to allow prisoners to meet with their families during the two-week Naw-Ruz festivities. A second visit with their families was also granted on April 6 but this time the families were only allowed to meet with their loved-ones from behind glass windows. [Iran Press Watch 2126]	Yaran; Persecution, Iran; Tehran, Iran; Iran
2009 21 Mar	In commemoration of the interment of the sacred remains of the Báb on Mount Carmel, the members of the Universal House of Justice, accompanied by the members of the International Teaching Centre, offered prayers of thanksgiving in the Shrine of the Báb on behalf of the worldwide Bahá'í community, expressing gratitude for the unfailing divine protection vouchsafed to the Cause of God. In their solemn contemplation, their hearts were stirred as they recalled the indelible image of the Master left to posterity when, on this day a hundred years ago, having with His own hands laid that peerless Trust in its final place of repose, He rested His head upon the edge of the blessed casket of the Báb, and "sobbing aloud, wept with such a weeping that all those who were present wept with Him". They remembered, too, the manifold obstacles with which He had been confronted in constructing this sacred edifice and His unbounded relief at having accomplished one of the principal objectives of His Ministry. [21 March 2009]	Centenaries; Báb, Shrine of; Haifa, Israel; Israel
2009 16 Mar	In Egypt the Supreme Administrative Court removed any grounds for preventing Bahá'ís from receiving proper official identity documents by dismissing an appeal by two Muslim lawyers thus clearing the way for an end to years of deprivation for Egyptian Bahá'ís and opening the door to a new level of respect for religious privacy in Egypt. The appeal sought to prevent the implementation of a lower court ruling last year that said Bahá'ís could leave blank the religious classification field on official documents, including all-important identity cards and birth certificates. [BWNS703]	Persecution, Egypt; - Persecution, Other; - Persecution, Court cases; - Persecution; Human Rights; Bahá'í World News Service (BWNS); Cairo, Egypt; Egypt
2009 4 Mar	The Bahá'í International Community at the United Nations sent an open letter to Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, the Prosecutor-General of Iran, regarding recent measures taken against the Yaran (at the national level) and the Khademin (at the local level). Since the disbanding of the Bahá'í administrative order in Iran in September of 1983, these groups had been functioning in close collaboration with the authorities. The letter reiterated, in broad strokes, the history of the relationship between the authorities and the Bahá'í community since the revolution and addressed the accusations leveled against them as well as the deliberate misrepresentations of the community. The letter closed with numerous examples of the support for the community from the Iranian population.	Ayatollah Qorban-`Alí Dorri-Najafabadi; Yaran; Persecution, Iran; Bahá'í International Community; - BIC statements; Iran
2009 1 Mar	The purpose of the Regional Conferences was to celebrate achievements during the first half of the Five Year Plan and to deliberate on the next phase. An estimated total of 77,700 people participated in the series, which began 1 November and continued for 18 consecutive weeks, spanning the globe and attracting Bahá'ís from the largest Western cities to the smallest villages in South Sea islands. Reports from the 41 Regional Conferences can be found at Conference Reports. The release of the film Arising to Serve. This film is a unique historical and inspirational record of those precious moments when the participants gathered to share what they had learned in their community-building activities, to plan for the work ahead and to celebrate their achievements, arising to serve their fellow citizens of the world.	- Conferences, Regional; Bahá'í World News Service (BWNS); Five Year Plan (2006-2011); - Worldwide; Arising to Serve
2009 Mar	The Yaran decided that, as a measure of goodwill, to disband all Bahá'í organizations in Iran. This decision was ratified by the Universal House of Justice. [Iran Press Watch 2709]	Yaran; Persecution, Iran; Iran
Try also a shorter date like 2009-0 or 2009 try also the Chronology Canada — 2009-03 or 2009-0 or 2009

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